North county students get to play business moguls

Northern Palm Beach County middle and high schoolers, including at least eight students from Watson B. Duncan’s Pre-Finance Academy, will get to study the art of starting a corporation and then pitch their ideas to business owners in a game similar to the reality TV show Shark Tank.

The Young Entrepreneurs Academy, which is being sponsored by the Northern Palm Beach Chamber of Commerce. Chamber spokeswoman Hannah Sosa said the north county chamber is the second in the state of Florida to run a young entrepreneur’s academy, which the Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce participating in the same nationwide program for the last two years.

Teams of students from several north county schools including Watson B. Duncan will go through three 10-week college courses in business at Palm Beach State College, Florida Atlantic University and the Scripps Research Institute.

At the end the teams will pitch ideas for a business to a panel of local business owners who are sponsoring the chamber program. The business owners will pick one potential business and award that team a small amount of seed money that can be used to start that business, Sosa said. The winning team will also get to take part in a nationwide contest where the winner receives $30,00 in seed money.

For more information on the Northern Palm Beach Chamber’s program visit its academy Web site at: